Chapter 38: The Blueprint of the Past
We need to find a place to stay, till we get the permanent residence to live in for. And what we found was The Rusted Valve inn. The insides of the inn were miraculously quiet, but few could hear the constant hammering noise in the background. Compared to the deafening roar of Assessment Hub 7 or the life or death sprint through the Cinder Canyons, it was the sound of paradise.
We had paid for the room with a single, tiny mana-crystal which Nyssa had been saving for an emergency. The clerk had looked at it suspiciously before sliding it into the Purse. With it we got surprisingly beautiful suite, which contained a room for each of us. And the most important part was "Soundproofing".
Rolf was already half asleep during my surgery. But as we entered the suite, he entered the closest room possible and locked the door shut and drifted away to the heavens. 'He needed that sleep.'
Kaelith said, "I will be taking the corner room." She grabbed the door handle and went in without saying another word. Her cold self was back.
Nyssa was also very exhausted as she had to perform surgery and had to run some sleepless nights in order to save their asses. I picked the remaining room.
I lay on my back, staring at the soot-stained ceiling. The pain in my hand were gone. It was replaced by the very real, grounding weight of the arcane mechanical arm resting on my chest. This arm was a reminder to my weak self. It was a constant reminder of the price I'd paid and the power I'd gained.
"Now that we have a safe place to live for a month. we need to think of how to earn money. Our stipend was all on spent on the surgery of my arm and Nyssa also spent her Emergency resources. All that we have now will last for a week max." Talking to myself, I drifted into the sleep. The sleep, which was much needed.
The city woke us with a series of deafening, multi-toned factory whistles that shrieked through the air. There were no roosters here. The city worked like a metallic alarm clock for an entire civilization. We stumbled awake, groggily. Our bodies were sore, but a fresh feeling soared over me as my sleep was completed.
I called our first official "Cell Meeting" right there, huddled in the cramped room. "We need money. Here's my plan. We split. Rolf and Kaelith, you two are the brawn. Find work. Anything that pays. Nyssa, you and I are the brains. We will come up with a business plan."
Rolf cracked his knuckles and a grin spreading across his face. "Brawn I can do. But, where exactly?"
"The Hazard & Retrieval Union," Kaelith said while yawning. Her voice was still low with sleep. "They handle a lot things. Like Supply gatherings, Monster hunting, and even daily chores. What do you say?"
"Well, get ready in a few minutes. All of us will register at H.R.U."
An hour later, we stood in the grimy, smoke-filled guild hall of the H.R.U. The air was thick with the smell of stale beer and sweat. Rolf, in his hybrid wolf-form, drew a few wary glances, but the sheer, intimidating bulk of him kept anyone from commenting.
We gathered at the Registrar's Bench and talked to the beautiful lady wearing the formal uniform of the H.R.U. Rolf moved forward before me with swift speed and beat me to it. "Hello there, beautiful lady! We would like to register at the H.R.U."
She looked at him with a professional smile, "Oh my! Thank you for the compliment, dear! Please, fill these registration form and wait for your Id cards."
'This dude is in love! Like broooo!' I did not believe Rolf had a type. He was a handsome guy and was even proposed by some girls at the Academy. But he rejected them all. Now looking at the receptionist, he was acting like a dog in heat. 'Finally! He showed some interest in women. I was starting to think he was Gay. Not that I hate it, but I would feel a little different.'
As we were waiting for the Id's, Rolf was busy talking with the receptionist. I moved Nyssa and Kaelith to a corner, who were similarly shocked looking at this scene. "What do you think of this?" I asked. Nyssa said, "This is really is a surprising situation. I did not speculate a situation where Rolf would be interested in women." Kaelith shared her thoughts, "So he is into the mature type huh?" Her voice still cold, but now she had something to tease him with.
I liked the way he took his chance. If you keep waiting fearing what will happen if she refused, then you are the fool. Who asks for a girl to be his girlfriend in their first meeting? It's all about showing them your charm. And every good man has a charm.
The receptionist called us who were whispering in the corner to get our IDs. She then explained the rules and working of the Guild to us. "The tasks and quests range from F-rank to S-rank. And the Strider ranking also works the same." Rolf interrupted her, "What are Striders?" "When you register with our Guild, you become a Strider."
"Now back to the point, we have some important rules here. Here is the rulebook. Read them. But remember that you need to complete at least 2 tasks in a month and you will be rewarded accordingly. May the blessing of Hometus be with you!"
Kaelith and Rolf took a Quest.
[A simple, dirty job: clear a nest of metal-eating 'Rust-Crawlers' from the Deep Boilers.]
It wouldn't pay much, but it would pay.
As they left, Nyssa and I headed in the opposite direction, toward a district of public workshops. For a handful of our last copper chits, we rented a small, greasy workbench by the hour and also bought the materials needed for our project. We then transported them to our Suite, which was quite spacious.
"Alright," Nyssa said, pulling out her soot-stained notebook. "We need to analyze the local tech. Their engineering is robust, very durable, but it's... crude. Everything is linear. Massive up-and-down pistons. They achieve power through sheer scale and brute force. It's inefficient."
I nodded, my mind racing. She was right. They were using the equivalent of sledgehammers to crack nuts. And I knew something better. Something so fundamentally simple and revolutionary it felt like cheating.
Because it was.
"Nyssa," I said, my voice low. "I need you to trust me. I'm about to show you something that doesn't fit any known model in this world. It comes from somewhere I cannot tell you about."
Her emerald eyes met mine, curious and sharp. "Well, as long as it does not mean that you have stolen it from someone it is fine. I can understand you keeping a secret or two."
For now, I thought, it's better she thinks it's a secret. I just gave a slight, enigmatic shrug and reached for the charcoal.
"Well, I can tell you that is not stolen from anyone in this world!"
I grabbed a piece of charcoal from a nearby pot and smoothed out a greasy scrap of parchment on the bench. My hand, the real one, moved with a certainty I hadn't felt in years. I wasn't just drawing; I was remembering. High school physics. The Industrial Revolution. The simple, elegant genius of it.
I sketched out a cylinder. Then, inside it, I drew a series of curved blades, arranged around a central shaft. I drew an inlet for steam on one side and an outlet on the other. I added arrows showing the steam's path, how it would hit the blades, spinning the shaft with incredible speed.
I pushed the drawing toward her. "It's called a steam turbine."
Nyssa leaned in, her brow furrowed in concentration. She traced the lines with a finger, her lips moving silently as she ran the calculations in her head. "This... this makes no sense," she said after a moment. "The pressure dynamics are all wrong. You're trying to convert linear expansion into continuous rotary motion within a single, compact housing. The energy loss would be... astronomical. The materials would—"
She stopped. Her eyes went wide. Very wide.
She grabbed the charcoal and began scribbling furiously in the margins of my drawing, her arcane symbols and kinetic equations intertwining with my simple mechanical diagram. "But... if you apply the principles of Arcane-Kinetic Theory... the steam isn't just a gas, it's a charged energy medium... the rotational force isn't just mechanical, it's creating a stable vortex... Great Cog, Grik..."
She looked up at me, her face a mask of pure, unadulterated shock and wonder. The greasy, noisy workshop around us faded away. It was just the two of us, and a single piece of parchment that could upend an empire.
"This..." she whispered, her voice trembling with excitement. "This isn't just a better engine. This is a paradigm shift. This is... ten times the power for a tenth of the size and fuel. This could power a city block from a boiler the size of that kettle." She pointed a trembling finger at a dented pot in the corner. "You didn't just draw a machine, Grik. You drew the future. This is revolutionary. If this technology was implemented it would be much more efficient than the existing high energy consuming crap."
A slow, triumphant grin spread across my face. The pain, the fear, the desperate flight—it all led to this moment. We were broke, fugitives in a hostile land. But in my head was a blueprint. And in her eyes, I saw the beginning of a revolution. And something else, too. A spark of admiration, of shared intellectual thrill, that felt warmer and more promising than the hiss of any boiler.
I leaned closer, resting my good hand on the edge of the greasy workbench. "There are dozens of other schematics locked in my head, Nyssa. Theoretical frameworks I've been piecing together since the Academy library. But I am just the architect. I need someone who can actually translate my mechanical theories into arcane reality. I need a Chief Engineer. I need you make my dreams a reality."
Nyssa looked down at the parchment, her breathing shallow, entirely consumed by the magnitude of the physics before her. Her brilliant mind was already racing miles ahead, utterly distracted from asking how I knew any of this. The hook was set perfectly. It was time to bring the industrial revolution to another world.